Baie Dankie

Baie Dankie
That’s thank you in Afrikaans. This was an extraordinary journey. South Africa has so much to offer, from its stunningly beautiful land, to the diverse people that have created the most vibrant nation on the continent. Special thanks to our friends from Toyota, Rhonda Glasscock and J.L. Armstrong, our IIE shepherds Mike McCartt and MarDestinee Gutierrez, the magnificent 24, Osha, Dave, Scott, and to the many South Africans who helped us to understand this challenging country. Go well.

Cry, the Beloved Country

In 1948 Alan Paton wrote Cry, the Beloved Country, a story written just as apartheid was taking control of South Africa. The story of tragedy and reconciliation is quite moving, as a black parson and a white landowner cope with devasating loss. Looking to the future of South Africa, Paton says “I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find that we are turned to hating."
I think this line sums up where South Africa is today, 17 years after apartheid came to an end. We spoke to dozens of people from a variety of socioeconomic groups, and found a wide variety of comments on the status of today’s South Africa. Everyone agrees that apartheid had to go, but not everyone is sure about where the country is headed. In fact, one colored cab driver insisted that life was better, or at least safer, under apartheid. Freedom is a messy thing. De facto segregation continues everywhere, unemployment is high, crime is a concern, and government corruption is a growing problem.


Then there are the shanty towns, the slums euphemistically called “informal settlements”. They stretch on for miles, almost entirely populated by blacks, the worst of them without electricity, running water, heat, or anything else that we take for granted. It’s absolutely heartrending. The government has made efforts to bring basic services to these endless townships, but it remains the most obvious sign that while apartheid is over, its legacy lives on.



For an uplifting looks at modern South Africa, take a look at the film Invictus, even if you’ve seen it before. Skip the lengthy rugby parts, (unless you like men in shorts…), and focus on Mr. Nelson Mandela, as played by Morgan Freeman. How Madiba, as Mandela is called, came out of 27 years of imprisonment to lead South Africa with forgiveness instead of revenge, is remarkable. As he said “If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy.
Then he becomes your partner” and “You will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution." Can't argue with that.

The Lion Isn’t Sleeping Tonight

I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy a game drive through Kruger Park. Rising before dawn, armed only with a camera, what could a safari offer that Disney’s Animal Kingdom doesn’t?
The answer is plenty. Our guide DeWald knew more about the flora and fauna of the park than I ever imagined possible. He knew what bird made which sound, which plant was safe to use as a toothbrush, and which animal left which…souvenir in the bushes. From antelope to zebra, we saw an array of wildlife. Getting stared down by a herd of hundreds of cape buffalo as the sun sets on the veldt is an amazing sight. Seeing a pride of lions munching on one of those buffalo for breakfast isn’t quite as wondrous, but no less spellbinding. Sadly, most of the South Africans we spoke to aren’t about to afford to go to parks like this.

Photo by Kathy Ho, an educator from Palo Alto.

South African Sunset

Our final full day in South Africa was spent cruising around Kruger National Park in search of wildlife, especially the “Big Five.” We saw two of them, the elephant and the cape buffalo, which means we were batting .400, which isn’t bad at all. There were also many other animals wandering about the park, including impalas, kudus, zebras, giraffes, baboons, hippos, hyenas, and a wide variety of birds. We also saw a rare species of wild dog, which even caused our guide to get out his camera. I’d show you all of my pictures, but my camera has surrendered. Its last picture was of a South African sunset.
The park does an excellent job of preserving some of Africa’s best known wildlife in a park the size of Israel. Since this is winter here and the dry season, it’s actually easier to see the animals as they go about their business. Tomorrow we’re up at dawn to search for lion, leopards, and rhinos.

Monkey Business

South Africa isn’t just about politics and social issues. It also has a great deal of wildlife, and not just in the schools. One of the most famous places to view the larger species is Kruger National Park in the Limpopo Province. In additional to stalking the Big 5 (lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros, cape buffalo) there are numerous smaller species, like the baboon. Viewed by many as a menace, an organization called CARE, The Centre for Animal Rehabilitation and Education, focuses on rescuing orphaned baboons and helping them return to the wild. Volunteers work with the younger animals, and larger animals are given the chance to form troops before being gradually reintroduced to the wild. If you’ve always dreamed of having baby baboons crawl all over you, this is your place. http://www.primatecare.org.za/

Chaos in Cape Town Classroom!

All it takes is one American teacher to ruin the calm of a South African classroom. These fine students in their sharp uniforms were deeply engaged in a lesson about cells when a bunch of Americans barged in. Chaos ensued.

Most South African kids wear uniforms to school, and most pay some pretty hefty fees for public schools. Maybe that's why these kids appreciate their school so much. Every day starts with a warm "good morning sir," and all rise when the teacher enters the room. These policies will be enforced in my room from now on, so start practicing.

There are some terrible inequities in the relative quality of public schools in South Africa, far beyond anything we have in this country. Schools built for whites during apartheid are typically similar to any public school in America. They are well constructed, and feature most of the things an American would expect to see in a school. This is not the case for schools that once served colored and black South Africans.

It’s hard understand why these inequities exist 17 years after the end of apartheid. In Georgia, certain minimum standards are set for schools, mandating curriculum, class size, teacher qualification, and other routine issues. As things were explained to me in South Africa, public schools receive a base level of government support. This is barely enough to keep the lights on, so schools charge tuition. Consequently, schools in upper income communities charge high tuition, allowing them to hire extra teachers, buy new equipment, and provide a quality education. This is largely only in the white and some colored schools. Due to pervasive poverty, most black schools charge a tiny tuition, which is still too much for some kids, when books and uniforms are added in. We saw schools with 50-60 kids in a class, inadequate desks, and even shortages of running water. But even in those cases, there were teachers doing stunningly good work. Unfortunately, given the huge numbers, kids fall between the cracks. According to one newspaper article, illiteracy rates in some areas run as high as 70%.

Abe
My South African teaching host was Mr. Abrahams, affectionately known as Abe. He says Abe stands for Always Be Enthusiastic. He certainly is. His students love him, and when they rise to see him in the morning their ‘good morning, sir” is full of affection. I should be so lucky. He teaches science, and is an expert on local wildlife and history. People like Abe, the teachers and administrators at his school, and his enthusiastic students are the reason why South Africa’s future looks bright.

Happy Feet

Every night, South African penguins gather under the moonlight and do line dancing in the shadow of Table Mountain.

Not really.

However, South Africa does have thousands of penguins, and loads of other species of flora and fauna as well. In fact, South Africa is said to be the third most biodiverse country in the world, behind only Brazil and Indonesia. The Cape Floral Region is one of six floral regions in the world, and has more different species in it than all of Great Britian. Much of this is threatened by development, and part of what were saw here were groups such as SANBI (South African National Biodiversity Institute that are working to preserve this unique environment. Check out Kirstenbosch Gardens for a sampling of the fabulous flora of South Africa.







South Africa is also famous for surfing, and a large population of great white sharks. Since the two don’t get along well together, surfers began asking local residents who were familiar with the area to watch the water for sharks, and signal them when sharks were spotted. This has led to an entire industry of shark spotters. It’s a win-win situation. Local residents find employment (necessary with unemployment rates that approach 30%), and surfers manage to avoid becoming lunch.

I'm King of the World!

Table Mountain is a flat topped, 3500 ft. mountain that looms over Cape Town. The guides told us we could climb it if we were in good shape, had a couple of hours to burn, wore the correct clothing, and brought plenty of water.
We decided to take the cable car.
Unfortunately, the cable car closes when it is too windy. Several of us thought it would be nice to walk up the trail for a few minutes. Then we walked a few minutes more. Then an hour. With visions of “Into Thin Air” dancing in my head, we continued to the summit, unsure whether we could make it down or not. There we saw several elderly women, people even older than me. While we had been hiking, the cable car had begun running.
The trip down was a lot faster. If you look closely in the distance, you can almost see the Cape of Good Hope, the Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean. Almost.

Auntie Doris

The most difficult thing to deal with in South Africa is the great disparity of wealth. There are beautiful sections of every city. The highways are good, you can drink the tap water, the airports are new, and there’s abundant shopping and a wealth of cultural opportunities. There’s also crushing poverty, ranging from merely poor to destitute people living in makeshift temporary housing that sprawls over nearby hills. It was here that we met “Auntie Doris.”
Auntie Doris is being helped by a group called Afrika Tikkun (look them up for more info). Her story is sadly a common one. After raising four children, things fell apart for her when her daughter died three years ago, likely from HIV/AIDS, leaving her with 4 grandchildren to raise. Her husband disappeared about the same time. Because of the demands of the children (the youngest was only 8 months at the time) she lost her job. She’s a proud woman, and didn’t want to ask for help, but, in her words, “I had to make myself small” and ask for food. She’s scraping by now, but her pride and strength are intact.
Her house, about the size of a classroom, is made of cinder blocks with a tin roof, but she’s lucky. She’s lived there since 1994, the year Mr. Mandela was elected president, and has several rooms, a microwave, stove, a refrigerator. She also has good neighbors. When we arrived, she was at the clinic getting her blood pressure medicine (“if you had to raise four kids, you’d need blood pressure medicine too”). A neighbor called her and sent a car to get her, since there were 4 white people standing outside of her door! Apparently we’ve given her something to gossip about for months to come.
Auntie speaks two languages, English, and Xhosa. If she appeared on Oprah she’d be a star. Her story gave us hope, but others in our group visited homes nicknamed “microwaves”, since the all metal structures heat up so quickly. Here they saw as many as 8 or 9 people crammed into tiny spaces, suffering from every problem imaginable. Toss in drug addition, crime, family violence, and HIV, and it was a tragedy. Despite this, thousands of people are moving into Cape Town and other large cities every month, living in conditions like this. Obviously this is probably the country’s greatest challenge.

Robben Island

You may never have heard of Robben Island, but Nelson Mandela did. The island is a 45 minute boat ride from Cape Town, and we rode over the rocking Atlantic in the same boat he and other inmates did- without the chains and shackles of course. It was here that he spent 18 of his 25 years as a political prisoner under the system of apartheid. Kept in a single cell, his days were largely filled busting rocks in a lime quarry under the blazing sun. Despite this, he and his fellow inmates communicated, educated one another, and kept their spirits of hope alive until the eventual closure of the prison in 1991. Today it is a historical monument.
The most remarkable thing is that these men emerged from prison wanting reconciliation and peace rather than revenge. In fact, our guide for the tour was Ntando, a prisoner from 1986 – 1991. He now lives on the island and describes the prison to visitors. His story is a testimony to the resilience of the human spirit. He also had a great baritone voice and would make a great teacher.

Cape Town

Dominated by the aptly named Table Mountain, Cape Town is one of the most spectacular cities in the world. Founded by the Dutch in 1652, it is known as the "Mother City of South Africa". The downtown waterfront is beautiful as well, and the surrounding area includes the Cape of Good Hope, the wine country (not that I'm interested), and several penguin colonies. Penguins! Awwww!

But there's more than that. We're scheduled to visit Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 25 years of imprisonment, and sprawling shanty towns, where crushing poverty can depress even an optimist like me. Stay tuned.